Pinocchio: where the character was born

On the front of Via Taddea number 21, a commemorative plaque marks the birthplace of Carlo Lorenzini. His parents, both from humble beginnings, found themselves working for the family of Marquis Leopoldo Carlo Ginori. The Ginori family played an important role in the lives of young Carlo and his brother Paolo, who spent many years as director of the Manifattura di Doccia, the heart of ceramic production.

Ginori took responsibility for Carlo’s education. Carlo attended the Liceo Classico Galileo high school, on Via Martelli, where another plaque commemorates him. Another site linked to Collodi is Palazzo Ginori in Via Rondinelli, where the writer lived and died suddenly, on the steps of his home, possibly from an aneurysm; he was buried in the Cimitero delle Porte Sante, the large cemetery at the foot of San Miniato al Monte and overlooking the city.

During his lifetime, Castello, a locality in the foothills between Florence and Sesto Fiorentino played an important role. This is where the Medici family had villas and where his brother Paolo owned Villa Il Bel Riposo. It was a kind of retreat, surrounded by nature in a stunningly beautiful landscape. Marquis Ginori and the Manifattura di Doccia, located just outside Sesto Fiorentino, were crucial in the life of the Lorenzini family.

The places that follow are the stops along a route - grounded in reality - along which the writer’s creative imagination developed, shaping the story of Pinocchio and his extravagant adventures.

The narrow streets of Castello were the very ones that served as the setting for Pinocchio's life, thanks to the artisan workshops (Geppetto's and Master Cherry's) and the real presence of a very young blond, blue-eyed maid, little more than a child, who lived at Villa Il Bel Riposo. She was the inspiration for the character of the fairy, who in the book is also called the beautiful child with turquoise hair.

And how could we forget that, being between Florence and Sesto Fiorentino, the latter town’s annual festival held in late August - a festive, colorful, popular event - was probably the model and source of inspiration for imagining the Land of Toys.  

In tracing the origin of the places in Pinocchio, envisioned in Carlo Lorenzini’s imagination, the most unusual and also unexpected is the "sea" of Peretola. An ancient rural village, now a suburb of the city and known for its airport, Peretola is a place linked to the presence of ancient families, like the Vespucci family (yes, the same lineage as Amerigo, the navigator).

We are in the so-called "plain" that, as documented in the 19th century, was still a marshy area characterized by the presence of extensive bodies of water. Few but significant traces of the marshy nature of the Plain still remain, such as Lake Peretola or the Stagni di Focognano (a WWF Nature Reserve), as urbanization has eaten away all the land. It is thought that the numerous references to the sea in Pinocchio may, in fact, allude to this "sea-lake" of Peretola, which was regularly crossed by small flat-bottomed boats, typical of marshes. A "sea", an expanse of water, which was clearly visible from the hills of Castello.  

We have come to the end of this fantastic journey through the places lived in by Carlo Lorenzini and reinvented as the colorful world of Pinocchio, the puppet whose nose grows every time he tells a lie and who always gets into trouble, but whose adventures and misadventures, full of meaning and narrative depth, go far beyond a children's story. The Adventures of Pinocchio has been adapted into dozens of plays and films, including the classic by Walt Disney, and has captivated numerous film directors, from Comencini and Benigni to Guillermo Del Toro and Garrone.

We would like to thank the authors of the book La Guida ai Luoghi di Pinocchio Maurizio Bruschi and Anna Soldani (Florence Art Edizioni) for the insights that inspired this itinerary.